Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I was prevented in submitting an assignment as a consequence of a power outage in my area. Despite having contacted the course instructor at the earliest possible opportunity as per the syllabus, and having successfully uploaded my assignment, I have been told that my assignment will receive a mark of 0. Originally the only issue concerning my assignment was whether it could be uploaded. To verify that the dropbox was indeed closed I tried to submit my assignment to the dropbox anyways. Much to my surprise the assignment submitted successfully, I received a conformation email confirming the submission as well. I forwarded this information to my instructor and was then told that the submission of my assignment would not be accepted.

Initially the only problem with my late assignment as outlined by the instructor was that the assignment would not be received. However, I found out that this was not the case as my assignment did submit, and the instructor then told me in the next follow up email that my submission would not be accepted. This was a completely different reason than was previously communicated by my instructor. No further information was given as to why the assignment would not be accepted. Instead, I was crudely told that my submission would not be accepted.
The reason I could not submit my assignment was because the power had gone out in my house from a snow storm the previous night. The house is located about an hour outside of Ottawa so the power took longer to come back online than it would have if I had been in Kingston. Since the power was out I had no way of submitting my assignment for marking. I believed this to be a reasonable extenuating circumstance that would be accommodated by my instructor. However, no attempt at all was made by the instructor to help resolve the issue rationally and I was treated very unfairly. In the course syllabus, it states that: ¿¿if a student cannot justify missing an assignment, he/she will receive a mark of zero.¿ I did justify the reason as to which I had not been able to submit my assignment and was still not given any accommodation from the instructor, even though the syllabus clearing states that accommodations will be made to students that can justify missing an assignment, or submitting it late.

By not marking my assignment my instructor directly violated the policies outlined in the syllabus. Late assignments are to marked if a valid justification is given. An example of this in the syllabus was illness, and my instructor communicated to me that the only way my assignment would be marked is if I was sick and had a doctor note. In the syllabus illness is not the only extenuating circumstance that would warrant late marking, it is only an example of an extenuating circumstance. Therefore, my not being able to submit my assignment because of a power outage must be considered an extenuating circumstance, and this must also warrant marking of my assignment. To note allow for marking of my assignment would mean direct violation of rules and regulations set forth by my instructors themselves.

I believe the choice concerning marking my assignment should be guided by the regulations set forth by the University itself, as well as the policies my instructor highlighted in the course syllabus. I believe the only ethical means of resolving this issue is to allow for marking of my previously, successfully, submitted assignment that was decided to be given a zero, with no marking, and for no valid reason. Or, I must be allowed extra time to resubmit my assignment. If this cannot be met I think that the assignment should simply be ignored from my overall mark, and I should finish the course with the mark I had before this assignment.